1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to coin telephones, sometimes referred to as telephone paystations, and more particularly to an apparatus to inhibit illegal entrance to the lower housing and vault area of a telephone paystation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Armored housing, both upper and lower, to protect telephone paystations began to appear a few years ago in certain metropolitan areas where vandalism and burglary were frequently found. Such armored housings typically include the use of welded steel plates added to the outside of conventional housings and bolted on plates to the inside of standard paystation housings. Such arrangements were made to strengthen the unit and generally provide greater security. In many instances, special plates were welded on to protect such areas as the keypad or other areas frequently subject to vandalism. Many telephone companies also developed their own protective facilities for paystation housings. While paystations so equipped are rather imposing in appearance, such arrangements do not actually offer a great deal of protection commensurate with the substantial additional cost involved therein. While in such arrangements there is an extra layer of metal to go through, once this is accomplished there becomes open space to and around the lock assembly which is the preferred access usually utilized by professional burglars. To provide some necessary protection at this point, however, a lock protector was developed and is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,373, assigned to the same assignee as the present application.
Actual protection, however, is a subjective thing, particularly when viewed from the telephone operating company's viewpoint. The lock protector, although effective, offers no outside imposing evidence of its presence. Thus, it is not the total solution for many telephone companies. Accordingly, it is the object of the present invention to provide a new and improved high security shield for the lower housing of the telephone paystation which provides an impressive appearance, therefore suggesting to potential thieves or vandals that the unit is protected from their activities.
However, it should be further noted that a substantial portion of the telephone industry have utilized housings of the single slot type as manufactured by AT&T, GTE, NE, and Qaudrum for many years. It has generally been found that such housings contain adequate security measures, however, in some locations the security of the lower housing which contains the vault and an anti-stuffing device associated with the coin return chutes has become a problem. As is well known, vandalism in the form of stuffing into the anti-stuffing device occurs when paper or other stuffing materials are illegally inserted into the device for the purpose of blocking coin returns to legitimate consumers. The perpetrator of stuffing returns at some later to "unstuff" the mechanism, retrieving the coins that have been maintained within the anti-stuffing device. Another type of vandalism to the anti-stuffing device is by firecrackers of a large size, particularly those known as "M-80s". These are inserted int the device behind the door with the resulting explosion destroying the anti-stuffing device.
Accordingly, it is the object of the present invention to provide a new and improved high security shield for the lower housing of the telephone which provides an impressive appearance and provides protection against the problems outlined above. The appearance providing a suggestion for potential thieves or vandals that the unit is protected from their activities while the design protects from insertion of firecrackers and similar devices.